Egypt expects more Chinese investment as the country embraces a better environment for foreign direct investment, Egyptian Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieddin said on Wednesday.

Mohieddin made the remarks at a press conference after he co- launched a workshop on Egypt's investment reform agenda with Richard Hecklinger, deputy secretary-general of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The minister particularly praised a latest Chinese investment of about 10 million U.S. dollars, which will help build a one-stop service building in the Suez industrial zone to provide convenient services for foreign investors.

Mohieddin, who is scheduled to visit China later this year on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Egypt and China, said that Egypt welcomes more Chinese investment in various sectors.

Based on a total of 3.3 billion dollars of foreign direct investment in the first half of the current fiscal year, which began on July 1, 2005, the minister said that his country is aimed at attracting a record high foreign direct investment of 6 billion dollars by end of this fiscal year, which will account for 5 percent of the country's GDP.

Hecklinger, the OECD official, said that Egypt has been pushing an aggressive reform agenda in luring foreign investment and drawing experience from other countries like China, which has been successful in attracting foreign direct investment.

The two-day workshop was organized under an initiative sponsored by governments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) with support by OECD member states.

Source: Xinhua